Pop star Lady Gaga has been sued for fraudulently profiteering from the sale of wristbands designed to help the Japanese victims of earthquake and tsunami. 　 U.S. law firm 1-800-LAW-FIRM filed a $5 million class action suit claiming that she broke her promise to donate all the proceeds to the Japanese and overcharged buyers for shipping costs and taxes.The case was filed Friday against the superst

VATICAN CITY (AP) _ Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted for the first time, announcing the launch of a Vatican news information portal.Benedict's tweet on Tuesday read: ``Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI''.The portal www.news.va for the first time aggregates information from the Vatican's various print, online, radio an

The government will selectively allow South Korean business professionals to visit North Korea for checks on their past investments there, an official said Wednesday, amid a prolonged suspension of trade with the communist state following its deadly attack on a Southern naval ship last year.For business purposes, these individuals will also be allowed to meet their North Korean counterparts in a t

PARIS (AP) -- Christine Lagarde has traveled tirelessly to save the euro and blazed a trail for women from Chicago to Paris in halls of power long dominated by men.The French finance minister with a broad grin and long stride now faces her toughest job yet: heading the International Monetary Fund. She takes over a post vacated by a man accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid just as th

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has reached a deal with congressional Republicans on the terms of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, clearing a major obstacle to the ratification of bilateral trade pacts with Korea, Colombia and Panama, the White House announced Tuesday."As a result of extensive negotiations, we now have an agreement on the underlying terms for

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News)-- The incoming top American military commander in Korea said Tuesday that the United States and Korea should prepare for the possibility of a regime collapse in North Korea.In his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing, Gen. James Thurman, the nominee to lead 28,000 U.S. forces in Korea, raised doubts over the North's heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, who is said t

MOSCOW (Yonhap News) -- North Korea and Russia appear to have canceled their plan to hold talks between their leaders later this week, multiple sources here said Tuesday following a series of media reports of the possibility of a trip to Russia by the North's leader, Kim Jong-il."It's my understanding that a summit between Chairman Kim Jong-il and President Dmitry Mevedev was known to be scheduled

North Korean universities are to be closed for the next ten months in order to supply laborers for construction projects.As the next year marks 100th anniversary for the birth of the “eternal leader” Kim Il-sung, the government is striving to restore its economy in order to create a “strong and powerful nation of socialism.”Pyongyang announced that all universities would be closed from June 27, al

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to visit Russia this week for a summit with President Dmitry Medvedev, Japanese news media reported Tuesday, drawing attention to the much-veiled meeting. The two former ally states are putting final touches to the summit slated for Friday in Vladivostok, Tokyo’s Mainichi Shimbun said, quoting multiple intelligence sources in Moscow.Kyodo news service sa

Long-standing ban on plural unions at company level to be lifted FridayFollowing is the first in a two-part series featuring multiple labor unions that will be introduced in Korea on Friday. ― Ed.After 13 years of hesitation, Korea is finally easing its iron-fisted labor union policy to allow more than one trade union at a single workplace, a move widely expected to open a new page in the country’

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― Despite North Korea’s reported tightening of border security to block the defection of its hunger-stricken people, the communist nation has made no efforts to prevent human trafficking by screening migrants along its porous border with China and Russia, the U.S. said Monday.In its annual Global Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department ranked North Korea once a

Thirteen senior officials of the state weapons acquisition agency will take early retirement later this month as the agency strives to slim-down its organization and improve its efficiency, officials said Tuesday.The personnel reorganization was the largest in scale since the establishment of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in January 2006, they said.Most of the officials who chose